Evening Brief: Outlier in the air

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Good evening to you.

Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion is taking a “prolonged” leave of absence for health reasons. The commissioner’s office announced the departure in a statement released this afternoon, saying Dion would return when he is able to do so.

Dion has been tasked with conducting a probe into whether the Prime Minister’s Office breached ethics rules by requesting former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould consider brokering a deferred prosecution agreement with SNC-Lavalin, which is facing bribery charges for its dealings in Libya. The deal would allow the company to avoid a criminal conviction that would prevent it from bidding on federal contracts for as long as 10 years. Marco Vigliotti has more.

In Canada:

Transport Minister Marc Garneau cleared his schedule for the day in order to meet with experts on how to deal with the issue of Boeing’s 737 Max 8 aircraft, which is being grounded or banned by a growing number of countries. The 737 Max 8 continues to fly in North American skies, but earlier today the European Union grounded the planes in the wake of the Ethiopian Airlines crash that killed 157 people Sunday. Garneau said today that he has no plans to ground Canada’s fleet of 737 Max 8 aircraft, but that “all options are on the table.”

“That could include grounding the planes, but at the same time I will evaluate all possibilities and not jump to conclusions before we can clearly evaluate the situation,” Garneau said, stressing he would not “be influenced by emotions.”

Conservative and NDP MPs have requested the House international trade committee be recalled in light of an ongoing trade dispute between Canada and China over canola. The request was made in a letter addressed to the committee’s clerk, Christine Lafrance, today.

“Canadian farmers produce the highest quality canola in the world. The Opposition parties are deeply concerned about the impacts that these baseless actions by the Chinese government will have on Canada’s agriculture and canola sector,” the letter, obtained by iPolitics, reads. “The issue at hand is not Canada’s canola product. We fear that if this issue is not resolved expeditiously, farmers will suffer significantly because of the Prime Minister’s ongoing mishandling of the Canada-China relationship.” That story from Kelsey Johnson.

A bill that would ban the captivity of whales and dolphins in Canada is set to move to the House fisheries committee next week. iPolitics has learned that the sponsor of Bill S-203, Sen. Murray Sinclair will appear on Monday as the legislation continues its journey. MPs studying the bill will have a new report in hand when they return to work next week. World Animal Protection and the Animal Welfare Institute have just released their fifth report on marine mammals in captivity — first produced in 1995 — which sets out the case against the practice.

“It’s the same argument, it’s just the latest science,” Melissa Matlow, campaign director with World Animal Protection, said of the report. Holly Lake has the latest.

Health Canada is proposing stricter rules on marketing powerful painkillers that would restrict all advertising to statements explicitly authorized by the department. The proposed marketing restrictions, announced Monday, would apply to opioid products “equal or stronger to morphine” that are provided to health care professionals, including powerful synthetic drug fentanyl, opium, oxycodone and codeine. If approved, they would take effect in June. Under the regulations, advertising and marketing information would be limited to what Health Canada has approved in the product monograph, a technical document that provides objective information about a drug, such as prescription details. Vigliotti reports.

Official Languages Minister Mélanie Joly is on the move. She’s embarking on a cross-country tour this spring to discuss improvements to Canada’s landmark language law. She launched Canada-wide meetings on the Official Languages Act today, convening a forum in Moncton where the focus was culture and bilingualism. The review of the act, which turns 50 this year, was announced Monday in Ottawa, though the Trudeau government signalled that it planned to “modernize” the legislation last summer.

We see a very strong drink in Theresa May’s future. The British prime minister was dealt another blow today by Parliament, resoundingly rejecting her Brexit deal just 17 days before the U.K. is due to leave the bloc. As AP reports, lawmakers voted by 391 to 242 against the deal — the second time they have defeated it. The House of Commons threw out the agreement by an overwhelming majority in January, sending May back to the EU to seek changes

Meanwhile in Venezuela, as a five-day power blackout has left homes without water, people are resorting to sewage drains in their desperate search for water. As Global News reports, the lack of water has become one of the most excruciating side effects of the nationwide blackout that the government of President Nicolas Maduro has blamed on U.S.-backed sabotage but his critics call the product of corruption and incompetence.